Recently, someone on Twitter posted an image from an 1870s-era map that showed “Eastern Market” at 3rd and H Streets Northeast. I was, of course, intrigued by this, as this was a market I had never heard of. Though the name given is wrong – it was actually known as the Northeastern Market – there was indeed a market here for a few years in that decade.
The year 1871 was an important one for H Street NE. On September 1 of that year, the streetcar began running up and down its length, kicking off a construction boom that would make it one of D.C.’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Around the same time, the city fathers decided that what was needed by all those people moving in here was a food market, and thus a contract was signed with Thomas W. Plowman, a local builder.
The market was to be built on the south side of H street, between 2nd and 3rd streets NE, on ground leased by the city for five years. Unfortunately, problems began almost immediately. The first issue that needed to be dealt with was H Street itself – it needed to be regraded. Thus, Plowman had to wait until this work was done before he could continue.
The next issue was adding proper underpinnings to the market building, indicating that perhaps the original plans had not been fully thought through. Sadly, the situation did not improve once the market was completed. It took several attempts for the stalls to be rented, and it was not until February 1874 that the market actually opened.
Detail of the map that started it all, and pretty much the only one showing the market (LOC)
Late the following year, a newspaper article on the various city-run enterprises, and what their needs were, noted that
At present time but a limited business is done, yet it is destined at no distant day, judging from the improvements made in that section of the city during the past year, to become a flourishing and paying market.
The most important improvement mentioned was in actually purchasing the land on which it sat, which was a matter of 24,000 dollars. How this would help business was not mentioned, nor were any ways of improving sales given. In short this was not a good sign for a market now almost two years in operation. Even worse, almost exactly the same article appeared a year later, indicating that no great changes had occurred in that time.
Nonetheless, in 1877 the lease was extended again, and some ways of using the space productively were taken up: Two rooms were leased to the school district for use as classrooms. Two years later, more radically, 75 feet of the market were removed and moved elsewhere on Capitol Hill for use as a school. By now, however, the market was almost closed. Just as no great hoopla had gone into its opening, it simply faded away, and by early 1881 the newspapers were referring to it in the past tense.
Fifteen years later, another market, this one private, opened near H Street, but a mile further east, near 12th and H.
Robert will be appearing this year’s Literary Hill Bookfest at Eastern Market, Sunday May 4 from 11-4.